BURNHAM'S CELESTIAL HANDBOOK

Every endeavor has its great names. This is a book that "everyone" in astronomy knows. Despite having been published in 1979, this set never loses its importance. In astronomy far more facts are added than are subtracted (poor Pluto). Burnham's Celestial Handbook: An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System by Robert Burnham, Jr., New York: Dover Publications (1966, 1978) has not been updated because it did not need to be.

The book began as a 3-ring binder that Robert Burnham made for himself while working at the Lowell Observatory outside Flagstaff, Arizona. His interest was in "deep sky objects": stars, clusters, nebulae, galaxies. He assembled his data from the standard references in the observatory library, as well as from other sources. He organized it for himself alphabetically by constellation. Volume 1 runs "Andromeda Through Cetus"; Volume 2 is "Chameleon Through Orion"; Volume 3 is "Pavo Through Vulpecula".

Hercules is a rich area of the sky. The descriptions run 46 pages, including double stars, multiple stars, variable stars, and then clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. The chapter closes with a lengthy descriptive summary of the facts about each of the stars in the constellation. Moreover, Burnham includes both the (brief) mythological story and the (longer) historical aside with pictures of ancient Greek coins depicting the hero. Again, all of this was intended for himself. It now serves us all.

Like any good discovery, the three-volume set offers more. It begins with what is essentially a 90-page class in Astronomy 101, covering the general layout of the universe and our place in it, as well as a basic table of objects. Burnham of course includes a dense array of facts, though much of the presentation delivers adjectives about the astounding, terrifying, and strange nature of the unearthly universe.

Perhaps the only paradigmatic addition to our general store of knowledge has been the discovery of more stars with planets. In Burnham's day only Barnard's Star offered that potential, an investigation beyond most amateurs, even today. (Barnard's Star is only 3.8 light years away but a red dwarf of +9 visible magnitude; you can see it with a telescope, but you will not see the planets, which arguably are not there after all…)

[In 2014, I wrote this in three installments on the International Astronomy Forum (now closed). There, Pikaia commented: “I have all three volumes which I have owned for a long time, and I enjoyed reading them. Unfortunately he had an unhappy life.  Robert Burnham, Jr. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In 2019, I posted this with some edits to the SkySearchers.com discussion board (inheritor of the IAF site). There, Piet Leroux replied with a link to this 11,000 word biography of Robert Burnham from The Phoenix New Times by Tony Ortega: https://tonyortega.org/sky-writer-the-cosmic-life-of-celestial-handbook-author-robert-burnham-jr/ Ortega's blog is pretty much focused on exposing Scientology, but this article has nothing to do with that.]

Burnham's tables give the Right Ascension and Declination for the interesting objects (binaries and multiples; variables; clusters, nebulae, and galaxies). So, you can set your 'scope by him. This is more than rhapsody, though he does speak poetically and dramatically. Also, as mentioned, he drew upon the Lowell Observatory library and other sources. Volume I gives the key to the tables. Sigma Σ is for F. G. W. Struve the Struve Double Star Catalog. Arg is for F. Argelander.  In all, Burnham references 21 catalogs, including those compiled by Kuiper and John Herschel. Δ (Delta) is for J. Dunlop; and lowercase beta β is for S. W. Burnham (the other Burnham).

He explains his special notation for Right Ascension and Declination (Epoch 1950 of course):

22115s2119 = RA 22h 11.5m; Dec -21 deg 19 min.

06078n4844 = RA 6 h 07.8m; Dec +48 deg 44 min.

The "Terms, Symbols, and Abbreviations" to explain the Tables runs four pages.

He catalogs the Nebulae by NGC (New General Catalog) but also relies on the Messier list. Burnham developed an interesting and useful symbology for Galactic Star Cluster (open dotted circle), globular cluster (circle with cross, like the old astrological sign for Earth), and so on.

In addition, he notes which clusters are loose and irregular ( C ), loose clusters (D), moderately concentrated (E), fairly well compressed (F) and rich and compact (G). All of that and more runs another two pages in Volume I.

Burnham provides several indexes in Volume 3. First is a numerical list of Messier Objects 1 through 104, giving the NGC number, common name or constellation, and the page number. (The three volumes are paginated sequentially.)

Next are two lists, the 35 Brightest Stars and the 25 Nearest Stars, though six of the latter are not mentioned in the books. The index of Brightest Stars gives their common names, Bayer Designation - Sirius is α Canis Majoris; Kaus Australis is ε Sagittari - Magnitude, Spectral class, and page number. The table of nearest stars lists them by their most usual designation - Proxima Centauri, Wolf 359, etc. It also gives their Constellation, Distance, Magnitude, Proper Motion (in seconds of arc per thousand years, Mu") Position Angle (PA), location (RA and Dec) and page number in the volumes.

Next is a Bibliography separated into General Stellar Data, Double Stars, Variable Stars, Star Clusters, Nebulae, and Galaxies. The Bibliography closes with Observer's Handbooks, and General History and Astronomical Lore.

The volumes are in alphabetical order by constellation, Andromeda through Vulpecula. Nonetheless, they are indexed at the back, giving their page numbers, as well well the Norton's Atlas Chart number, and the Skalnate-Pleso Atlas Chart number. Next is a list with page numbers of about 170 stars and other objects by their common names: Achernar, …, Eagle Nebula, …, North Star, … Sword of Orion, …, X-Ray Sources, … (The list of White Dwarf stars is on page 417.)

The work closes with an Index of General Topics, and an Index to Tables of Data.

In short, what you have in these three volumes is the twenty year diary (1958 forward) and professional research notebook of a working astronomer who was passionate about Deep Sky Objects.

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS

Seeing in the Dark: Your Front Row Seat to the Universe

Astronomical Symbols on Ancient and Medieval Coins

Science in the Middle Ages

Is Physics a Science?

Brian Krebs’ Spam Nation

Computer security journalist Brian Krebs ("Krebs on Security" here) signed books at Barnes & Noble in Austin on November 24.  Spam Nation is really about two nations: Russia and the United States.  Two criminal organizations dedicated to online spam and botnets, perhaps the largest in the world, work(ed) from Russia, targeting Americans. 

Brian Krebs started his presentation by acknowledging the four years he spent on the project.  He then thanked his publisher, editor, and associated researchers, and the cyber-crooks.  Both of them denied that they were engaged in criminal activity; and both have threatened to sue. 

It starts with spam, offers for Viagra, Gucci, and other big name products, especially pharmaceuticals and designer fashions.  The offers themselves are real enough, in that, apparently, millions of people are taking fake drugs and carrying fake handbags. 

About fifty security professionals attended.

However, attached to the offer is malicious software that takes control of your computer. Your computer becomes a zombie following their orders to infect more computers.  These networks of robots (“botnets”) flood the Internet with new viruses.  According to Krebs, the typical life cycle is 12 to 24 hours. As new creations, the programs successfully challenge anti-virus software such as Kaspersky and McAfee.

Eventually, the two criminals turned on each other.  They provided Russian law enforcement (and Krebs) with millions of stolen records.  One of them, Pavel Vreblevsky even got himself appointed to a commission to investigate computer crime.  (I note that in that, he was like William Chaloner and John J. Ford, who also played both sides of the game.)

When asked about security tools, Krebs replied that good procedures are the best protection.  Rather than trying to keep people out of your network, you need to focus on finding them once they get in.  Rather than spending money, sometimes millions of dollars, on tools that no one actually uses, it is better to hire good people to really use the tools your company now has. 

Krebs said to keep your personal and professional lives separate.  He recommended partitioning your operations with different computers on different services for different tasks. Have different VPNs (virtual private networks). Use layers of security.

Asked about the threat of a catastrophic attack on our information infrastructure, Krebs said that it is not in the interests of these criminals to harm our economy.  They want us to buy from them.  Disrupting commerce is unproductive.  Krebs suggested that a catastrophic event will come from a Wargames scenario where “some kid in his mom’s basement who will see a big red button and has no social understanding.”

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

LASCON 2014

Securing Your Viper Against Cylons

Hacking Computer Security: BSides Austin 2013

Claude M. Watson

Newton versus the Counterfeiter

Intended for a general readership, this book rests on an extraordinary foundation of careful scholarship.  Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist by Thomas Levenson (Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009).

Thomas Levenson teaches science journalism at MIT. He has been granted special recognition for his Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentaries. Among those is a Westinghouse award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which he shared with co-producer Paula Apsell, for the 1992 PBS “Nova” presentation, Eclipse of the Century. In 2005, the National Academies honored Levenson with a Communications Award for his PBS mini-series production, “Origins: Back to the Beginning,” about evidence for the ontology of life. He knows science; and he knows how to present its difficult facts and complex theories.

            This lively historical narrative of criminology and jurisprudence animates Sir Isaac Newton’s career as a detective and prosecutor. Levenson delivers to print the videographer’s impact of sight and sound. Levenson introduces us to Newton in a series of establishing shots, pan-and-zoom vignettes that sketch and detail the events spotlighting the intellectual and emotional development of the man easily nominated as the greatest scientist. You walk down the alleys and into the pubs where Sir Isaac Newton investigated crimes against the British Royal Mint which he served as warden and master.

            Levenson opens the book by outlining Newton’s intellectual and emotional development. Complementing his work in mathematics, astronomy and optics, Newton also experimented with alchemy, performing purifications and alloys of metals. Emotionally, Newton’s isolation was rooted in self-abnegation. The hint of a homosexual dalliance comes as an instantaneous action, the lifelong reaction to which only distanced his social relations to ethereal planes. You could get no closer to Newton the man than you could to the Man in the Moon. Thus, this combination of unflinching pursuit of difficult theoretical and empirical truths, bulwarked by a stellar disregard for other people’s feelings made Newton the perfect prosecutor.

Newton portrait
by Enoch Seemar 1726

            The counterfeiter, William Chaloner, was Newton’s opposite. A runaway apprentice whose first lawful skill was making nails, Chaloner found London to be a probabilistic cloud of moral relativity whose potentials suited his self-indulgence. For William Chaloner, counterfeiting coins was only one craft in a wider enterprise. In the language of the day, Chaloner called his swindles “funning”. He funned the Mint with counterfeit coins, and the Bank of England with fake paper, both bank notes and drafts. When his counterfeit notes were discovered, he turned informant, not only avoiding prosecution and prison, but being granted £200 in reward. Accused by informants of counterfeiting, Chaloner won the first courtroom skirmish, humiliating Newton. Consequently, Chaloner erroneously considered himself Newton’s equal; and his complex, long-range plans were but moves in a game designed to give him access to the Mint in order to coin for his own profit.

            Before Newton, the posts of warden and master were only sinecures for the favored who then further stocked their own larders at public expense. They were not exceptions. Married to sisters, the master smelter and the assay master were brothers-in-law, living beyond the limits of their official salaries, inferentially guilty of conspiring to pass debased silver into the official coining operation. The vector that impelled Newton’s trajectory was the sale of dies from the Mint to counterfeiters on the outside.

            Whether Newton’s career as a detective and prosecutor is “unknown” is putative. While most readers here probably know of his Three Laws of Motion, his work at the British Royal Mint is less often taught. Biographer David Berlinksi (Newton’s Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World, New York: The Free Press, 2000) called Newton’s tenure at the mint uninteresting. Numismatists, who study the forms and uses of money, feel differently. 

Levenson acknowledges the works of Sir John Craig. Craig’s book, Newton at the Mint (Cambridge, 1946) is catalogued by the libraries of both the American Numismatic Society and the American Numismatic Association. Levenson also cites two other Craig monographs, "Isaac Newton—Crime Investigator", Nature 182, 149-52; and Isaac Newton and the Counterfeiters, 18 Notes and Records of the Royal Society 2, 136-45 (1963). When I proposed a review of the Levenson book to the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, editor Wayne Homren shot back: “How does it compare to Craig?” Levenson draws on the same sources as Craig: Newton’s papers, the mint archives, court records, a biography of Chaloner, Chaloner’s own petitions and letters. Where numismatist John Craig presented the facts, videographer Thomas Levenson brings them to life.

Merchant Token 1791 Middlesex
1penny; size larger than
US quarter dollar.

            Nonetheless, graphical animation can be dangerous. Of Newton’s meeting in a pub with an informant, Levenson says, “The detective swallowed his irritation.” (P. x.) Did he?  Was that recorded?  “For Newton’s part, this first encounter with Chaloner did not register very deeply.” (P. 157.) The storyteller’s power depends on many such inferences and inventions. The salient question is: Does the poetic license that is extended to creative non-fiction jeopardize the truth? 

            Of course, we have the compiled confessions of the accused and the accusations of informers whom Newton interrogated. Yet, those folios are decidedly incomplete. We know that many were burned. To explain why official records were destroyed, Levenson leaves the main narrative to establish a historical context for the use of torture in interrogation, a subject of some immediacy to us. Newton could not resort to extreme methods, but the actual tactics are lost because the documents were burned according to the reports of Sir Isaac Newton’s secretary.

            Whether William Chaloner was factually guilty may never be known. It is accepted that William Chaloner did not get a fair trial. “Chaloner was sentenced to death, very fairly on his record, unjudicially on the evidence …” (Craig, 1963; P. 143.) Levenson concurs. William Chaloner was accused of crimes committed in London. “And yet Chaloner faced charges brought by a Middlesex grand jury, being heard by a Middlesex trial jury. How could such a court, Chaloner asked, address crimes committed outside its jurisdiction?.” (P. 231.)

            Our modern experience with wrongful convictions throws a harsh light on the testimonies of jailhouse snitches, casting shadows of doubt. Yet, those informants were the only source of Newton’s evidence against Chaloner. Prima facie evidence is easy to accept. Chaloner probably was guilty, but certainly did not get a fair trial by modern standards. Moreover, our sociological context also condemns much else of that time and place. We do not horribly execute counterfeiters. Chaloner was drawn and quartered.

            As a casual read, the book can be enjoyed in a couple of hours. No reference numbers or inline citations encumber the text. The Notes are all in the back with concordance by page number and key words. Some readers will find profitable cause to linger there and reflect.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Forgery and Fraud in Numismatics

Merry Newtonmas (2013)

Harriman's Logical Leap Almost Makes It

Junk Criminology as Pseudo-Science

YOUR STATE DEFENSE FORCE

Right now, 20 states have active defense forces. Their organizations and responsibilities vary, but, generally, they serve as technical and operational support for the state national guard. They provide response to public emergencies such as weather or man-made disasters.  They cannot be federalized; and they do not [usually] carry weapons. -- [edited 15 March 2017]

Green states have their own units
(March 2017: Oregon, Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, 
Connecticut are all inactive.  Massachusetts is a
ceremonial honor guard only.)
From oko.ohmr.ohio.gov

 While prior military service is common in the ranks, it is not a requirement for enlistment.  Ohio is exceptional in conducting annual physical fitness tests, including  push ups, sit ups, a one mile run, and measurement of waist-to-hips ratio, for active deployment.  Here in Texas, you can join at 65 and serve until you are 70; and you can be extended by special orders.

Maryland recently created a cyber defense unit.  In addition to a medical regiment, Maryland volunteers can work in engineering, finance, information technology and communications, legal, religious, and logistics and supplies.  Some Maryland Defense Force civil affairs cadres work as interpreters. 

 “The Ohio Military Reserve is a component of the Ohio Adjutant General's Department and serves under the governor as commander in chief. Its primary mission is to provide a fully-manned and mission-ready civil support and sustainment brigade to support the state's Emergency Support Function 6 (mass care) and Emergency Support Function 7 (logistics and resource support) during natural or man-made disasters or other threats to homeland security. In order to accomplish this mission, OHMR units are trained in medical support, volunteer reception and management, shelter management and logistics support in addition to basic soldier skills. Our core competencies are training to National Incident Management System (NIMS), Military Emergency Management Specialist (MEMS), and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) standards.” -- http://ohmr.ohio.gov

Several states, such as Ohio and Maryland, point to old traditions of citizen militias.  Ohio became a state in 1803.  The Maryland Defense Force claims roots in the 17^th century.  (Their website does not mention the war with Pennsylvania.)  However, the modern state defense forces are identified with the Militia Act of 1903 (Militia Efficiency Act or Dick Act), which reorganized the state national guards and defined more closely when they could be federalized. 

U.S. Code Title 32 Chapter 1 Section 109 (1916) empowered the states to create their own guard units commanded by the state governor. The Federal government activated the Maryland National Guard to the Mexican border in 1916, along with the national guards of Massachusetts, New York, Iowa, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.  World War I brought federal mobilization of all the national guards, creating the need for the home units. (Wikipedia “State Defense Force” here.  Also US Code archived at Cornell Law School and with attributing footnotes at Versus Law.)

“The Dick Act prohibited states from retaining their own militia systems. Ohio was one of the states that chose not to follow the federal mandate and [chose to] maintain such a force. A principal reason for the continuation of the Ohio Militia was the desire to protect Lake Erie. There was no Naval National Guard.” http://oko.ohmr.ohio.gov/join/info_about.php

As in many other states, here in Texas, our state guard  is under the adjutant general’s office, along with the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard.  The Texas State Guard Air Component is primarily a weather service, and also trains for a wide range of other duties. Unlike the other branches - Maritime Regiment, Army Component, and Medical Rangers – the Air Component [often] drills with their active guard counterparts.  

The Texas Maritime Regiment operates dive teams and boat operations for search and rescue and other tasks.  They serve along the salt water coast (367 miles) and the river waterways (4400 miles of major bodies and perhaps that many more lesser rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and bayous).

“The Maritime Regiment specifically embraces the unique structure and traditions of America’s Naval and Marine forces in preparing troops to carry out  duties related to Texas’ land, marine, littoral and riverine environments. In the interest of creating the most effective response team, TMAR has forged working relationships with various groups such as the U.S. Coast Guard, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Forest Service, and the Lower Colorado River Authority.  The Regiment‘s members are true volunteers who willingly accept military discipline, orders and training to answer the call to meet urgent human needs in times of peril or crisis.”

Generally, across the states, you are a volunteer and cannot be required to deploy. Most states ask for a commitment of a weekend a month. Here in Texas, the promise is at least three years of 200 hours per year. Some drills are only one day. If you are prior military (about half of those enlisted or commissioned), you usually bring your last grade with you. Civilians usually have supervisory experience and often a college education.  Grades ("ranks" private through general), are assigned at first on that basis. 

The TSG operates evacuation and sheltering centers
in times of natural and man-made disasters. 
Among the missions of the Texas State Guard are:
Mass care/Functional needs care 
Emergency communications 
Special needs evacuation tracking 
Wide area damage assessment
FACT SHEET here

As a volunteer, you are not paid to drill and train. You supply your own standardized and specified uniforms and equipment. Here in Texas, when deployed for an emergency, all personnel receive $121 per day, sometimes with a food allowance of $35 per day, regardless of component, grade, or rank.

[Subsequent to the July 16, 2015, terrorist attacks in Chattanooga that targeted soft military sites - a recruiter and a supply depot - the Adjutant General of Texas was not alone in applying state law and allowing concealed carrying of firearms for those who are so licensed.  You cannot display any weapon you were not issued, but you can have a concealed firearm subject to a permit. Here in Texas, only a magistrate or a peace officer (defined in the state constitution) can ask if you are armed and ask to see your permit.]

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS

Volunteering in an Emergency: What to Expect
Drones are Everywhere

Modes of Survival

Liberty's Kids

Hail Merry Desserts

Hail Merry desserts give you satisfying, flavorful experiences because they begin with the purest ingredients; and then they are dehydrated at low heat, rather than being baked to death. They also deliver their sweetness with herbs and spices rather than relying on bulk sugars.  

Hail Merry's marketer, Colleen,
at Whole Foods Arbor Trails, in Austin.

This avoids the key problem with low-this and non-that foods, especially desserts: those make up for it with other stuff that is not so good for you, like guar gum, xantham gum (from broccoli rot), carrageenan, canola (oil from Canada), and more pure organic cane sugar than you could suck out of a sugar cane.

Texas native Susan O’Brien majored in design and went to work planning clinical laboratories. At mid-life, after studying with Hollywood's raw foods chef, Juliano Brotman, Susan O’Brien established her company in Dallas. (She grew up in Grand Saline and has family in McAllen.)  O’Brien took on two partners, Susan Palisi Chapin and Alison Brushaber, who brought their big company experience to the start-up.

 

The company logo is based on the chess queen,
rendered in the style of wooden dolls
created by architect Alexander Girard.  

 The Hail Merry desserts - Miracle Tarts (Meyer Lemon, Chocolate Mint, Chocolate, Persian Lime,  Almond, and Coconut), Macaroons, Grawnolas, Nuts & Seeds, and more – are available at Whole Foods and other grocers.  The company also sells direct to anyone in consumer-sized wholesale lots of a dozen. 

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS

Hot Dang Vegie Burger Mix

EPIC Meat Bars

Mayan Mojo

Austin's Chinatown

Painted Papers Artisan Wraps

Happy Birthday, Paul

My brother is in the hospital getting a Dacron aorta.  A simple arm strain injury at work led him to discover that we have the same genetic defect: coarctation or stenosis of the aorta and a bicuspid valve.  Mine was corrected by surgery (just the pinch, stretched, not Dacron; and not the valve) in 1956.  Medicine has improved. Certainly people have.  No one ran marathons in 1956; and he has run several.  Lately, however, he could not make three miles, so he says that he should have known…

 

After he started working on this,
and was living in California, Paul took acting lessons. 
After a lifetime on stage, he said the lessons helped.
He performed the work in clubs several times.  
Sketches of Dorian Gray trailer

The sibling rivalry we accepted as normal as children would not be tolerated today.  My being three years older and often 150% of his weight, it just was not fair.  When I went off to college, he had more growing space.  He also signed up for the wrestling team, picked a fight with me, and pinned me in one move.  So, that settled that. 

Episode One

He qualified for Cleveland Public Schools major work (“super normals”) program, which I did not.  Also, he actually practiced the piano, which I did not.  He had the insight to choose the violin while I picked the coronet.  So, he could get over his mistakes quietly, which I could not.  He became a musician. 

"Grey Haired Rats" -- Playing piano in a rock band sucks. I've had just about every kind of electric piano ever made. They all stink. More than once, I've had to play some strange approximation of a piano provided by a stupid promoter. One time the piano was 175 feet from the stage. (No you can't move it). Once the "piano" was actually an organ (Hey, it's got keys, what's the problem?) On top of that, keyboard instruments were ridiculed by just about everyone in our crowd it seemed. Too much like British prog-rock or worse, the Doors. Peter Laughner once told me pianos are OK, sometimes, but the pedals are only for squares.  -- THE STYRENES
 by Paul Marotta, Scat Records liner notes here.

We both held many jobs over the years.  He spent more time selling and less time on trucking docks, but, as Ayn Rand said, all work is an act of philosophy.  Eventually, he made vice president at New World Records, and even got a seat on the board before he was fired.   The Nineties were an interesting time.  We thought they never would end.  But they did, on September 11, 2001.  

Episode Two

Work got hard to find, so in 2005, my wife and I returned to school to complete the four-year degrees we never needed before.  When Paul saw how easy it was for me, he returned to earn a bachelor of arts in literature at Purchase College in the SUNY system.  He needed the vacation from life.  His wife had died far too young from cancer.  He was uncentered.  Time out for school was a good choice. 

He spent some time in California.  Now, he is in Massachusetts.  He has a new significant other - and a new heart.

Episode Three

You can browse for “Paul Marotta”, though like “Mike Marotta” you will find many. We are not dentists.  These YouTube links will help. 

• The Styrenes perform "OneFanzine Reader Writes" on Glasgow TV show The Beat Room in 1998.
•  The Styrenes perform "Drano InYour Veins" and two others at Pirate's Cove, Cleveland, 1979.  (The sound is not good.  The Dancer is easier to follow.)  
• This fan posting of  “Drano in Your Veins” has better fidelity.
• The Styrenes - All The Wrong PeopleAre Dying
• In C By Terry Riley - A 'rock' orchestration by The Styrenes - Part 1
• The Styrenes in Wikipedia here.

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS

World Peace Through Massive Retaliation: Educating the Gifted and Talented in Cleveland, Ohio

Where All the Children are Above Average

Nerd Nation 4.5

The First Dagny

"Painted Papers" Offers Artisan Wraps

We met Debra Flanagan at our neighborhood Whole Foods when she gave us an origami turkey that she made from one of her handcrafted wrapping papers.  

DEBRA FLANAGAN (right)
talks to a customer at Whole Foods.

Her coatings adhere non-destructively to standard clear ("scotch") tapes. So, the tape does not tear the finish and the paper can be reused.  Many other creative projects can integrate these unique papers. Debra Flanagan paints her specially-made papers by hand. The paper is sold by the roll (26 inches by 72 inches, more or less) at local Austin craft stores, artisan events, and Whole Foods markets.  She has an email address, PaintedPapers@Yahoo.com, but no blog or website.

You can read more about her at the Clarksville Pottery website here. 

Clarksville is a neighborhood just outside of downtown Austin. Founded by freedman Charles Clark in 1871, Clarksville is the oldest surviving post-Civil War freedomtown west of the Mississippi River.  Wikipedia here.)

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS

The Genius of Design

Around Austin (2014)

Pi in the Sky Over Austin

Neal Adams at Dragon's Lair

Austin's Chinatown

By the middle 2020s, Austin will have more Asians than African-Americans.  Austin already is a town without an ethnic majority. Moreover, the texture of the Asian groups is changing.  In the middle 1980s, most Asians here were Chinese and connected to the University of Texas.  Granted that the demographers differentiate Taiwanese (7.9%) from Chinese (12.2%), nearly a fifth (18.1%) of the Asians are Vietnamese, giving them substantial visibility. (City of Austin data PDF here.)  The city even tracks their family names, mapping the Trans, Nguyens, and Phams (PDF here).   

Fu, Lu, and Shou,
the three gods of traditional folk religion
representing Happiness, Prosperity, and Longevity
stand under the welcoming gate.

The City of Austin notes: "This highly entrepreneurial population has opened new businesses, purchased restaurants, made loans available to its network and acquired real estate." In fact, in her essays and book on "Bourgeois Virtue" Deirdre McCloskey goes into some detail on how co-ethnics within a wider culture create these community networks. They exemplify many of the fundamental virtues of commercial culture, including the importance of reputation and the willingness to trust.

Southwest National Bank. The doors are in
Chinese characters, Romanized Chinese
and Vietnamese: Ngân hàng quốc gia

Across the street from the Southwest National Bank
The first character means da "big" (a man with arms out).
The second character may be "auspicious".
The last two compounds are yin hang "bank" 
= silver (metal under mountain) 
+ capable, to do.

 "Amazingly, by the middle of the next decade, the number of Asians in Austin will more than likely exceed the number of African Americans.  While the general population of Austin doubles every 20 to 25 years, the number of Asians in Austin is doubling every ten years." (City of Austin "Top Ten Demographic Trends" report here.) 

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS
Formulas for Success
Shooting the Roadhouse Relics Gallery
Kalliope
Jaime's Salsa of Austin